beermanpete

Stress in the hub is normal and is generated from the weight of the car, braking forces, and corning forces. The corner radius where the wheel mounting plane (vertical) meets the wheel pilot (horizontal) is where the cornering load induced stress will be the highest. There is a large saftey margin in most passenger car designs so it is reasonalbe to assume a small amout of material could be removed without decreasing the saftey margin to a dangerous level. I suppose it really comes down to the resources available. If you have access to a machine shop turning the hubs down is easy and could be done nicely. If you are going to do it by hand with a file or die grinder (Dremel) it will be easier to chamfer the back side of the wheel and get a decent looking finish.

It might be better to remove the material from the wheel. The wheel is not stressed at the point you would remove material from it. The hub, however, is stressed at the point you will need to remove material from to make the wheels fit. The balance is not likely to be a problem since it is so close to the center. If you remove a lot of material unevenly and upset the balance it will be easier to deal with if it is on the wheel. Having the wheel/tire balanced is easy and routine. Having the hub balanced is not routine and likely more expensive (but only needs to be done once).

First, make sure the hub is very clean and free from burrs, dents, and other irregularities. With a close fit burrs, dirt, or anything else that make the hub larger will cause interference. If the wheel is actually too small you can use a thin wheel spacers to place the wheel out a little bit, over the tapered portion of the hub. This will need to be checked against the clearance with the fender to make sure you don't end up with a problem there. Another option is to make the bore in the wheel larger, as you already said. If you do this a file will remove material faster than sand paper. You might be able to make a chamfer rather than open the entire bore. This will minimize the chance of seeing the missing finish from the wheel after it is installed.

Duffman, Did you get different readings when connecting the gauge with a tee and then directly?

Nothing. The speedometer drive is sealed separately from the cable. You can simply remove the cable and drive.

The free play should not effect the pedal effort. Too much free play will cause a low pedal. Too little or no free play will cause the brakes to be held on all the time or when hot from driving. This will cause brake overheating, poor fuel mileage, and possibly wheel lock-up. When the free play is set correctly you should be able to detect 2 distinct free plays. Pushing the brake pedal by hand you should feel the brake pedal touch the booster first and then the booster touch the master. We had the same problem, high pedal effort. After an arduous trouble shooting process we determined the problem to be caused by badly overheated and glazed brake linings. New brake linings fixed the problem.

The factory service manual procedure for testing fuel pressure is to use a tee in the fuel line and measure the fuel line with the engine running and return line connected as normal. If the fuel pump output volume is sufficient it will maintain the correct pressure with the return line bleeding off fuel back to the tank. It was designed to do this after all. As it happens, the pressure should not rise if the return line is blocked due to the design of the pump.

Don't forget about the bearing in the steering column. There are 3 bearings that support the steering shaft. These might be bad or need service.

Generic heater hose will work fine. The only reason to get the MSA hoses is for the original look.

No, it is not part of the cable. The seal is in the side of the transmission where the cable attaches. To replace the seal you must remove the pinion gear from the transmission. To remove the pinion gear you remove the cable from the transmission. Next remove a small hex-head screw from the side of the transmission just below where speedo cable attaches. This screw holds on a little plate which retains the pinion gear assembly. Now you can pull the pinion assembly out. It might be tight due to having been there a long time. You can use pliers if neccessary to grab the end but be carefull so you don't damage the threads. Wrapping the threads with a rag helps. There are 2 seals on the pinion assembly. One is an o-ring in a groove around the assembly. This one will allow oil to leak onto the ground if bad. The other is pressed into a bore at the end of the pinion assembly and will allow oil to leak into the cable. Both are still available from your Nissan dealer for a few dollars.

I doubt that oil from the speedo cable will get into the meter. It will run out at the joint were the cable attaches to the meter. Keep in mind, the oil leak is actually at the transmission. The oil seal in the speedo drive pinion is bad. The master cylinder should have bleeder valves on it. Look on the drivers side of the master just above where the brake lines attach. If there are no bleeders just bleed at the fittings where the lines attach.

It seems your tach is bad. Arne has verified the Pertronix is not the cause and you say the car is running fine. The only thing left is the tach itself. Try a different tach or have yours serviced.

The early 240Z uses a current-pulse driven tachometer (typically referred to as a 4-wire tach). The current pulse from the Pertronix ignition is likely different than with points. This could cause problems with tach operation. You might need to use an aftermarket tach or get one from a 280Z with the voltage driven (3-wire) input.

I don't like the idea of those type of products. It seems like the solvents in them would degrade the protection offered by the oil. Modern oils have a lot of detergent additives in them. Fresh oil will "wash" the engine and pick up most of the deposits that are easily dissovled. Change the oil after a few hundred miles if it gets dirty quickly.

The rattling is likely the bearing cage, not the bearings themselves.

+1 for the harmonic damper being out of whack. The crank pulley is two pieces bonded together by a rubber layer. The bond can break, allowing the pulley (and timing mark) to slip. As Cozye said, find true TDC and check the timing marks to see if they are correct.

If your oily fluid is brake fluid it is more likely from the clutch master cylinder. Another possibilty is oil from the speedometer cable. Our car ('73 240Z) had an oil leak in the transmission that pushed oil through the speedo cable and it leaked out at the back of the speedo and onto the floor inside the car. Brake fluid and gear oil are very different in look, feel, and smell so you should be able to tell which it is without too much difficulty.

It sounds like you have weak spark. Check the condition of the plug wires and the connectors where they go into the distributor. Be sure to check the coil wire as well. What coil are you using? Are you using the ballast resistor?

The need for the choke is related to temperature. If it is getting colder where you live that may be the reason for needing to use the choke. 10 minutes is a long time to leave the choke on. Usually the choke can be turned off in a minute or two. Leaving the choke on too long ca n foul the spark plugs which cause rough running. Check the plugs, if they are black and sooty they shold be replaced.

All wires that were originally connected to the coil need be connected to the coil, in their original locations. All wires that were on the ballast need to be connected to each other. You should have +12V at the positive coil terminal when the key is on. The negative terminal should fluctuate between +12V and 0V while cranking the engine. If you are using a digital voltmeter you might not be able to see this due to the sampling rate of the meter. If you have a dwell meter you should read this as a dwell angle of about 35 degrees.

We have a similar issue with our '73. In the process of diagnosing a problem I had the distributor apart and back together a few times. Despite following the service manual explicitly the timing ended up 180 out. I put the plug wires in the cap 180 out to accommodate it and the car runs fine. The only consequence is that the plug wire routing is not as pretty. As for the oil pump timing, I have not had mine apart but it seems it could be 180 out as well and cause the same problem.

You need to connect the wires that were on the ballast to the positive terminal on the coil (with the red wire to the Pertronix module). You should have +12 volts at the positive terminal of the coil when the key is on. By the way, the green wire is most likely the starter bypass. This is technically no longer necessary since you have remove the ballast but it will not hurt to have it connected.

The gauges have calibration adjustments. There are small holes in the case to access the trim adjustment using a flat blade screwdriver. The tank sender can be adjusted by bending the arm that holds the float.

A slightly vague pedal is normal until the brakes bed-in. As you said, the shoes and drums are not the same diameter so the shoes flex more than normal unlit the diameters match. The pads in front will do the same thing to a lesser degree until bedded in. The bed-in will take a few hundred miles. The brake fluid level for the front brakes (larger reservoir, closer to firewall) will drop slowly as the pads wear. The rear brakes will not do this. The rear brake slave cylinder will always return fully unless they are stuck for some reason.

It sounds like the timing is 180 degrees (at distributor) out. You might have timed it while at TDC while on the exhuat stroke (valve overlap) rather than TDC on the compression stroke. Try timing at the "other" TDC.